Gravity Rush Review

Gravity Rush is a PS Vita exclusive title developed by SCE Japan studio and released in North America on June 12, 2012.

Work on the game originally started in 2008 when it was being developed as a PlayStation 3 title. It was later moved to the Vita where it has found a good fan base for a new IP on a handheld. Since gravity Rush’s arrival, its main protagonist Kat has been seen in two different games; Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royal as DLC, but her shining star is still her standalone game–Gravity Rush.

The story starts with our young female protagonist Kat falling from the sky. Kat wakes up having lost her memories in a town called Hekseville. She eventually meets a strange black cat named dusty who grants her powers that let her control the gravity around her.

After finding a place to live and with her new found powers she decides to help the people of Hekseville–a floating city–with their problem of the Nevi. The Nevi are creatures that come from gravity storms to attack the people of Hekseville.

Kat eventually meets a few more rather interesting people including a rival who also has some powers of her own. The story throughout the game can get a little weird but explains things pretty well.

Gravity Rush’s main draw is its use of gravity. With the touch of a button Kat can change the gravity around her letting her walk on walls, under buildings or even fly through the air. These mechanics give the game a certain flare that hasn’t been seen on the Vita since.

Using her gravity powers Kat can pick up objects (and people) to move or throw at enemies. On top of that Kat can really kick. Just about all of her attacks involve using her feet. Whether you’re fighting on the ground or in the air Kats quick footwork is what keeps her alive and kicking. All of this is fairly easy to do once you get the hang of the controls which aren’t in anyway overly complicated.

While playing through the game you will find crystals that you can use to upgrade your powers. Your powers can be upgraded in different ways. You can unlock new attacks, power up your attacks or speed up how fast you move or how long you stay in your gravity field allowing you to move farther while messing with gravity. These crystals are everywhere.

They can be found On the tops of buildings, on the bottom of the buildings, in hallways… everywhere. Good luck finding them all. Some of the crystals can be used to help the city by powering different things like elevators or fountains. Doing this unlocks side missions that you can do at your convenience.

The graphics in Gravity Rush look like a comic book. In fact its story is mostly told through comic style scenes that are flipped like pages with a touch of the Vita’s 5 inch OLED screen. The graphic style of Gravity Rush fits perfect with its gameplay. You always feel like your controlling an anime. The draw distances are extremely good too. There is very little pop in of objects in the background allowing you to fly up and get a view of the beautiful city in its entirety.

Gravity Rush’s audio is about what you would expect from a Vita game. Whenever you grab a crystal there is a dinging sound and when you fly through the air there is a ‘WOOOSHHH’ sound. There are no mind blowing scenes where you’re in an epic battle with an absolutely amazing soundtrack playing in the background. It does however give you a good score throughout the whole game.

It never went to over the top or fell below my expectations. One major thing to note is that the game is done entirely in a made up language and played out with the use of subtitles. This is something I would normally hate. I’m not a big fan of imports mostly because I don’t like reading sub titles but somehow I wasn’t bothered by having to read them in Gravity Rush at all.

Gravity Rush didn’t affect me like any other games with subtitles would, my best guess is it’s because most of the time I was reading the story I felt like I was reading an anime comic because of the way you flip pages.

Overall Gravity Rush is great and what will hopefully be a franchise is off to an amazing start. It has everything you could want from a handheld game. With gameplay and graphics that have their own style, and with all the DLC Kat has shown up in lately you can probably expect to be seeing a sequel at some point for this gravity defying game.

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